Butterflies
by Nakitama-san
Summary: Sure, Dobe. I'll catch the butterfly for you.


Uh...This is a filler until I write the next chapter of Bunraku XD So...yeah...I almost cried when I wrote this T.T Pretty sad, huh? Uh...So yeah XD Please don't hate me!

**Warnings:** SMALL shounen-ai hints, character death.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anybody in this story X3

-----------------------OoO

_Blue eyes blinked, trying to get the haze out of his head. He kept blinking, rubbing his eyes in a desperate _

_attempt to rid himself of the burning caused by smoke...Or at least he thought it was._

_Moments later he stood up and shook his head, blonde spikes quivering with the movement. He stretched, _

_and then he looked around, glad he had taken time to clear his head before he had stood up. It was only then he noticed the strange glowing slashes on his body, tight knit and spread all over. Then he realized the pain from it, and he winced. The most pain seemed to come from his cheeks, and he reached up to touch them, only to jerk his hands back down when he felt his fingers probe deeped then they normally could, where normally, his whisker marks were. Now his hands were covered in blood, and throbbing with each beat of his heart...The beat he couldn't feel._

_He panicked momentarily, eyes trying to make out something, anything, in the inky black surrounding him. A low chuckle resonated behind him, and he shivered, turning around to be met with a vision of a huge fox. A huge fox. It seemed to be glowing with...with something, but it was brighter then the rest of the room, so he was drawn to it. He ran a hand over it's fur, surprised by how soft it was, contrare to the rough look given._

_Blue eyes met red when he looked up, and in turn they studied eachother, one set of eyes inquiring and the other amused._

_The fox had black ringed around it's eyes, like a mask...Or a raccoon. And he laughed at this small revelation before continuing to study the large creature before him. White fur that glowed, giant black-tipped ears and...Nine tails, and only now did the blonde realize who was laying before him._

_"Nine-tails?" An astonished look replaced the curious one as he looked up into the face of his companion, who seemed to be having fun at his expense, if the look on the fox's face was anything to go by._

_"That is me. Sit." There was a pleased look on the creature's face, and he followed it's orders dumbly,sitting indian style infront of the demon. One of the tails wrapped around him, and warmth seeped back into his skin, making him realize that not only was he cold, but he also had nothing on, and he shivered, leaning into the offered comfort._

_They sat there in silence for what could have been several hours, or several minutes, for all he knew, or counted. There were no clocks where they were, and he took time to study his surroundings, inexplicably glad that he was near the only source of light and warmth in the room, the space itself being black and cool upon the skin. Then, the question that had been biting and screaming for attention in the back of his mind made itself known._

_"Why am I here? I thought I was..." And he didn't even have a last memory to point him to where he was. Where had he been before the dark had set in?_

_"Why do you think you're here?" What kind of question was this supposed to be?!_

_"I don't know! That's what I'm asking you!" He threw his arms up in exasperation, before crossing them with a scowl on his face. "If I knew that, I wouldn't have asked!"_

_"You do know though." What was with the stupid fox?!_

_"No I don't! That's why I'm asking you stupid fox!" He was shooting an accusing glare in the direction of the large demon, who was seemingly laughing at his misfortune. _

_Suddenly, a burning pain shot through his being, causing him to bite his lip and wince, clutching his stomach. And now he remembered why he had started panicking, and a hand clutched his chest, desperate to feel a heartbeat, any beat at all._

_"Why isn't my heart beating?!" He was near the edge of hysterics, but then he breathed, trying his hardest to calm himself down, despite his wide eyes and racing thoughts._

_"Why do people's heart usually not beat?" Was the cryptic comment that flowed from between the fox's teeth, and he shot a glare for the little help he was getting, hand still pressed desperately to his chest._

_It was hard to think from all the pain he was going through, and he bit his lip hard enough to split it open. He felt the throbbing pain accompinied by the injury, and he acknolwedged now that no blood was pouring from the wound, not even a trickle._

_"Am...Am I dead?" He direly needed to know the answer, but feared it enough so that he hoped against hope, that the answer would be no, even though he had stopped believing in hope long ago._

_"Not quite yet." The blue-eyed teen released a breath of air he hadn't known he'd been holding, only to frown in grim realization that he had not felt a stir brush past his lips, not even a whisp of moving air. _

_"What do you mean? Not quite yet?" What was 'Not quite yet' s'posed to mean? How could you be 'Not quite dead'? It seemed insanely impossible to him, a thought that he couldn't wrap his mind around._

_"It means you're not dead. And you are."_

_"...Is that possible?" Was it?_

_"Obviously." This demon tired him, made him think to much to be healthy, and to keep a sane mind. As soon as he had thought the word 'tired', darkness had ebbed around the edges of his vision, and he fell to the Kyuubi's side, annoyed with the soft rumbling laugh he felt against his cheek._

_"Can you explain it to me?" He mumbled this against the warm coat of the fox, too exhausted to be annoyed by the constant chuckle dripping from the large fangs of this demon._

_"No." He looked up in exasperation, blue eyes meeting the slit red ones._

_Immediately, he turned his eyes down._

_"Why not?"_

_"Why should I?"_

_"You play to many mind games. Now let me sleep for awhile." He curled up to the side of the best, a surreal image of picture perfect destruction and innocence. His eyes started to drift close, but snapped open when he heard the next sentance uttered._

_"You go to sleep, you'll die, Koukou." He eyed the creature suspiciously, but there was no skin stretched over fangs in a form of demented grin, no twinkle in the dead eyes before him._

_"Yo-you're n-not joking, hu-uh?" He stifled a yawn, fully intent on staying awake with this new bit of information._

_The thing was, the harder he tried to stay awake, the more he needed to sleep. The warmth was calling him, beckoning him to just give in to the warm imbrace that was the heat, and the darkness...It didn't help that the Nine-tails constant laughted acted as some sort of vibration, like a massage. And why was he hearing voices, of all things? Wasn't the darkness empty? To him...it sounded like...a sick sort of lullaby._

_"Not at all." The Kyuubi's grin had returned, and the light (where, he wondered, did it come from?) glinting off his fangs blinded Naruto, forced him to shut his eyes._

_"I think you're trying to get me to sleep!" He looked accusingly at the large creature, and when it did nothing to deny the claim, he stood up, stumbling because the numb that had seeped into his feet and legs. He took a few steps away from the monster before him, only to have his feet give out under him. He was falling, and he was screaming, and he could scream forever because he didn't breathe anymore._

_He was still screaming when one of the nine tails caught him, and brang him back up to the Kyuubi's side, and his fingers fisted in the creamy fur, staring out into the darkness that could stare back._

_"If you do that, you'll die in a way that you'll lose your soul." How could the beast still be entertained?_

_"How...How come it's like that?!" The question had an edge of hysterics, and he clung desperately to the only source of anything in the room._

_"I don't know." This answer startled him so much that he made the mistake of looking into the birght yellow eyes above him, and he saw a glimmer of something. Didn't the Kyuubi know everything?_

_The Nine-Tails tossed his head, and Naruto couldn't help but think that if it had hands, it would be waving them over the room. "It's been likes that for awhile."_

_"...Oh..." His tone was a disappointed one, because he wanted to know why these things were happening, and what was happening, and when it happened. But he was so tired now...He didn't care anymore...Just please...Let him sleep..._

_"You want to sleep too?" Lazily, as if drugged, he raised his head up so that he could look at the animals face. How did he know? Was he feeling the same thing?_

_The kyuubi rested it's head on it's paws, slit eyes sliding close and tails resting over the small boy at his side._

_"If you die before you wake, Naruto."_

------------------------OoO

Bleary blue eyes opened to a foggy sky, and he realized it was raining, and all he wanted to do was close his eyes on...Wake up..." His eyes opened again, and as dulled as they were, they could see the boy that was leaning over him, and only now did he realize that the boy was holding him up. He also realized who this boy was.

"Let me sleep, S'uke...Or...actually...I'm hungry..." He gave a half-smile, and his vision blurred...Why did his stomach hurt so much? Was he really that hungry?

"No! Dobe! Naruto! Don't sleep. And don't look down." Of course, as soon as the words 'Don't looke down' were uttered, he looked down, and he understood why his stomach hurt so much.

He _had _no stomach.

Where the seal used to be, he could now see the blood-soaked ground that he was laying on. He could see his own chakra working feircely to repair the damage, but it wasn't happening. Ironically, he noticed that his blood had drenched a flower under him.

He shrugged it off. After all, _he could not die. _"I'll be O.K., right Sasuke?" He looked up, the last of his life glittering in his eyes with the hope he didn't believe in.

Sasuke looked horrified, as he himself was staring at the mutilated remains of his slowly dying friend. The words that were uttererd between bloody coughs seemed to snap him out of his revelation though, and he turned to Naruto, a sad smile on his face. "Yeah, Dobe. You're going to be fine."

"Alright..." Blue eyes were redirected to a spot above the black-haired boys shoulder, and he gave a wane smile, raising his hand a couple inches before letting it drop down in exhaustion. "Oi, oi, Sasuke. Over your shoulder. Catch that butterfly for me!"

Dark eyes looked over his shoulder, and his eyebrows knotted in confusion. He frowned at his blonde friend. "Naruto...There's no-" Then a realization seemed to hit him, and he gave a grin wide enough that it hurt him.

"Alright, Dobe. I'll catch the butterfly for you."

--------------------------------OoO

Done!...That was so sad to write -dies- A'ell. Ja Ne! And anybody who doesn't know this, Butterflies are an omen of death. X3


End file.
